


Interlude

by GhoulMan



Category: Cosmere - Brandon Sanderson, Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:49:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26710138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhoulMan/pseuds/GhoulMan
Summary: A short story about a new knight radiant that takes place directly after Words of Radiance.
Kudos: 1





	Interlude

Thaylen city was a bustle of movement and excitement. Crates were being loaded onto trading ships, and merchants were shouting excitedly from the market. The weeping was finally over, the highstorm signaled the end had passed the day before and merchants were ready to depart and start-up business. Some of the more cautious merchants kept their ships docked upon hearing rumors of another highstorm that was passing soon, but the more careless merchants scoffed at the rumors and prepared to depart anyways. Thism was under the pay of one such merchant and was hired on as extra labor. The pay didn’t mean much to him, though, what he really yearned for was the opportunity to go to new places on Roshar.

After many hours of labor, Thism set down the final storage crate, and jovially walked to the deck through the cabin whistling to himself as he went. He passed his sleeping arrangements, a room with mats laid out where each sailor and labor men would be sleeping and dreaded the night of back pain waiting for him. Still better than staying in that city, he thought to himself as he went. When he breached from below deck he hit with a pleasant breeze as well as the smell of the sea. He breathed in deeply as he looked around. The sailors were busy at work unwinding sails and bustling to and through. They were mostly Thaylen men, on the young side, with loose-fitting clothes and cloth caps. Thism spotted the captain of the vessel, a medium-sized Thaylen man, a little on the flabby side, standing talking to the second mate. Thism approached them at the end of their conversation and the captain faced him, “What can I do for you,” he said smiling. Thism couldn’t quite remember the captain’s name, he was never good at names, “I’m inquiring if I could get my pay in advance,” he responded, the Thaylen language tasting foreign and strange on his lips. The captain looked at him curiously before unceremoniously pulling a pouch from his vest and placing it on Thism’s outstretched hand. “Here you go, this should be your pay for the labor this morning as well as the labor when we reach port.” the captain said as he turned around to get back to work.

Hours later and the ship was off, being sped on by a quick breeze. Thism stood leaning against the rail on the starboard side of the ship, or was it port? He was never very good with nautical terms. He felt content to watch windspren fly next to the boat, dancing in the breeze. As he watched the spren he pulled out the pouch containing his pay and dumped it into his palm. Much to his excitement, the spheres were glowing alight with stormlight. Many weeks ago, before the weeping slowly made every chip din, he had somehow taken in the stormlight and he had never felt so alive. Trying to replicate his previous actions, Thism took a deep breath, but nothing happened. He looked at the spheres with a furrowed brow and then heard a voice speak to him. He looked around and spotted a humanoid figure with boyish features and a simple shirt and trousers that fluttered in the breeze. And also the boy glowed with white light and was the size of one of his fingers. “I asked you what you were doing,” the voice said again and the figure crossed his arms. The figure had spoken in Alethi so Thism responded in it as well, “I’m trying to breathe in the light, and this problem seems more of your kind then theirs, ey?”. The spren looked at the sailors whom Thism had gestured at and shrugged “I guess so,” he muttered before flitting off back to join the other windspren. Thism watched him go with amusement before turning back to the chips in his palm.

As the sun began to set on their second day of travel the wind turned into a howling tempest, whipping the sails every which way and causing the sailors to brace themselves. The temperature dropped suddenly causing the sailors to shiver. Thism had experienced the start of a highstorm without cover many times before and in the distance, he could see a dark wall along with clouds that glowed a menacing red. “We should have never come out here,” he heard one of the sailors' whimper and many more voices cried out in despair. Hundreds of windspren flew in the air, dancing around the panicked and wide-eyed sailors. Thism watched the approaching storm with a smile, finally excited to have a great adventure. Riding out a highstorm in the sea was nothing he had ever done before and it would make a great addition to his list. As he contemplated this the same spren from earlier landed on his shoulder and casually said, “Did you ever figure it out?”. “I haven’t,” Thism replied, “Yet that is. But I have more pressing matters at hand, I made a great decision to come with this ship”. Thism stood up and approached the front of the boat and faced the storm with a grin. The crashing of waves against the side caused the other sailors to lurch around the deck didn’t seem to affect him, neither did the wind that battered everyone else. He was ready.

The wreckage of many ships drifted to shore the following days. Whether it be the ships of impatient merchants that couldn’t wait to get their goods out or others who didn’t know of the everstorm, it didn’t matter in the end their wreckage intermingled in the burning sun. Thism’s body wasn’t found amongst any of the ships but many others from his ship were. Their bodies bloated with the salty water and skin chapped and flayed by the winds of the storm.

Thism walked down the street of some city he didn’t know the name and hearing the chatter of a language he didn’t recognize. It was a cool day with a light breeze that attracted a few windspren, one of which floated next to him. “What is your name, friend?” Thism said conversationally. The spren looked at him for a long seconds before replying, “Dunno”. Thism looked at him curiously at that remark but shrugged and carried on his way, holding in his hand a fistful of dun spheres.

**Author's Note:**

> This was brought to you by "See the Day" by The Altogether. It doesn't really apply to the work in any way but it just think its neat.


End file.
